Chapter 2

MARTIAN SELFIE

Apollo smiled mischievously as we cruised out of my room. “I was only trying to teach him about Mars’s moons,” he said. We cruised next to each other so we could still talk.

“Right,” I said, feeling as if we were about to get into an argument. “You shouldn’t scare him like that,” I said. “Also, did you know Mrs. Sosa was listening in on the call?”

“She was?” Apollo asked, looking embarrassed. Mrs. Sosa was in charge of the entire space program. If Mom knew how Apollo was behaving in front of Mrs. Sosa, she’d be really angry, and Apollo knew it. “I’ll find Cozzie and tell him I was only messing around,” he said.

We cruised into the control pod, where Mom and the crew steer the station. It was pretty crowded, and it seemed as if everyone on the ship was already gathered there to see Mars. Mom was seated in the captain’s chair. She looked annoyed. Cozzie was on her lap and looked as if he’d been crying.

“I’m SO sorry!” Apollo pleaded before Mom could say anything. We shut down our cruisers and floated in the room with the rest of the crew.

“This is a big moment, Apollo,” Mom reminded him, pointing to Mars. “Space can be scary enough. You shouldn’t make it worse for him.”

“Cozzie, I was totally kidding around. There’s nothing to be afraid of,” Apollo said, glancing at Mom for her reaction. She turned her attention back to Mars. Apollo looked like he wasn’t sure if he was off the hook.

Dad, who’d been videoing Mars, pointed his camera away from Mars and turned it toward us in an attempt to change the subject. “There it is, kids. We’re the first people to ever visit Mars! What do you think?”

I’d seen lots of photos and videos of Mars, but seeing it with my own two eyes was pretty spectacular. We were close enough now that I could make out canyons and even large boulders on the surface. It was red, as I had expected. It was empty-looking, as I had expected. Dad was looking for me to say something interesting to the camera, so I said, “It’s beautiful.”

“What is beautiful about it?” he asked.

“It’s just so still. It reminds me of a huge, red desert.”

“It really is pretty,” Mom said, no longer mad at Apollo and refocused on Mars. “Talk about a dream come true! If you had told me ten years ago that I’d be orbiting Mars with my family, I would have never believed it.”

“It looks kind of creepy,” Cozzie said, snuggling closer to Mom.

We all looked at Apollo. He pretended not to notice and looked out on Mars. “I’m with Starr. I think it looks beautiful,” he said. I didn’t buy his nice-guy routine.

Mom turned her attention to the group. I took a closer look around too. Two of my favorite crew members, Kathy and Professor Will, were there. They both waved to me, and I waved back. We had a bunch of scientists and their families on board and they all seemed to be there too. I guess everyone wanted to be there for the historic event. We were the first group of people to reach Mars… EVER!

“Welcome to Mars!” Mom announced. The group clapped and someone let out a high-pitched whistle. Dad panned the group with his camera. I could tell he didn’t want to miss a second of everyone’s reaction to seeing Mars for the first time. Cozzie finally smiled.

“You’re the first humans to visit the red planet in history,” Mom continued. “Congratulations! Please enjoy the rest of your day as the station orbits the red planet and the crew and I prepare to land. Take lots of photos and videos. The world is eager to see what we’re seeing! History will want to see what we are seeing!”

The crowd cheered again. People shook hands and hugged.

I looked around for my team. On every trip, I’m in charge of a few kids. It’s kind of like we’re at camp and I’m the counselor. On this trip I was in charge of two kids: a boy named Raj and a girl named Yuna.

Raj came from India and was really smart. During the journey to Mars, he’d taken apart just about every electronic device he could get his hands on and put it back together again. He reminded me of a young Professor Will.

Yuna was from Japan. Whenever we had any free time, she painted. I’d never seen anyone paint in space until I met her. She brought lots of art supplies on the trip and was having a hard time keeping track of them. In the microgravity of space, anything that’s not secured or placed in a bag floats away. I’d found a few of her pencils and a tube of paint floating around the station.

When I spotted Raj and Yuna, they were taking pictures. I floated over and joined them.

Working with Raj and Yuna had been a challenge for me because English was their second language. They could speak English a little, but when we tried talking, someone always ended up getting confused. Since our phones translated our texts into our first language, it was easier to communicate by texting.

I texted: Welcome to Mars!

Their phones buzzed. They read the texts and gave a thumbs-up. Raj waved for Yuna and me to come closer. He took a picture of all three of us with his phone. Then he texted it to us. My phone buzzed. It said: FIRST MARTIAN SELFIE EVER!

We all smiled. I forwarded it to Allison and Tia.

Early in the trip, Mom had told me that working with Raj and Yuna was actually one of the experiments the crew had designed for the trip to Mars. They wanted to study how kids would work together in space if they speak different languages. Adults had already had to deal with language differences on the International Space Station, but it was the first time for kids.

I was a little frustrated because the kids who Apollo was working with all spoke English. It made his job ten times easier than mine. Mom said I should take it as a compliment that the crew trusted me with such an important experiment. I tried to think of it that way, but it still didn’t seem fair.